Five cars from the last 20 years that were hated from the start

Monday, 7 October 2019

Developing a new car is an incredibly fraught process that could go horribly off the rails at any time. But car makers have generally got pretty good at it over the years.

They don't always nail it first time, however, so today we take a look are five cars from the last 20 years that were pretty much hated right from the very start.

Pontiac Aztek

Ah, the poor Aztek. It went from a pretty awesome looking concept car to the horrifyingly awkward mish-mash of lines and angles that critics roasted and consumers stayed way from in simply massive numbers.

**READ MORE

* Five cars from appliance makers

* Five car firsts we take for granted today

* Five cars that are ugly for a good reason**

The Aztek was actually incredibly innovative and boasted a number of very clever features like the optional inflatable tent and mattress that allowed it to be used as a camper. But none of that mattered.

General Motors predicted annual sales of 75,000 Azteks, and needed to sell 30,000 a year to break even. It sold 27,793 Azteks in its best year (2002) before trickling down to almost nothing a few years later (347 in 2006 and 69 in 2007) when it was quietly killed off an GM never spoke of it again.

Some cars are loved from the moment they are launched. Others... not so much.

Hummer H2

Literally the wrong car at the wrong time, the Hummer H2 was universally unpopular with people who weren't meathead dude-bros.

The H2 dropped right after 911 when military aggression and America's thirst for oil were all over the headlines, so was seen as overly militaristic and flagrantly thirsty for a lot of tastes.

Exactly how out of place was it? Well, Toyota launched the Prius into the USA around the same time, so to say it wasn't a good look for GM was an understatement.

Sales were dismal and GM sold just over 150,000 in the eight years the H2 was in production, pulling the plug the year before the Hummer brand winked out of existence after GM failed to convince the Chinese to buy it.

Pontiac Aztec is an icon of unloved cars. But there were bits of it that were really quite clever.

Jaguar X-Type

Jaguar tried to pull a swifty with its long-awaited BMW 3 Series competitor by playing up the fact that it was an AWD sports sedan.

What they tried to play down was the fact that it sat on the FWD Ford Mondeo platform - except literally no-one was fooled.

The motoring press slammed the X-Type not only for its poor attempt at deception, but also for its bloated styling, poor build quality, high price and dismal unreliability, describing it as 'the worst car of the decade', 'Jaguar spitting on its own heritage' and 'about as charming as a hernia'.

The Hummer H2 was big, brash and incredibly thirsty at a time when nobody wanted that anymore.

While customers were equally unconvinced, the X-Type did manage to stay in production for 8 years, but it literally never bothered the 3 Series.

SsangYong Stavic

Oh dear lord, where to start with the Stavic?

Its awful build quality? Its poor handling? Its lack of refinement? Its terrible ride? Or its poor performance, emissions and safety?

Oh, wait, no - its frankly disturbing looks! That's where everyone starts with the Stavic.

Highly respected car designer Ken Greenly was the sole voice in defense of the Stavic's design, and that is because he designed it. SsangYong tried to deny it was ugly, saying it 'comes with a strong emotional component that will make it the focus of attention wherever it goes.'

Jaguar tried to sell the X-Type as an AWD BMW competitor. Except everyone knew it was a FWD Mondeo underneath...

The Japanese made some okay cars on the GS platform. The Americans just made things like the Jeep Compass.

The Stavic was supposed to look like a luxury yacht. It sort of does. But when was that ever going to be a good thing?

But neither were right. The Stavic was simply worryingly ugly.

But SsangYong persisted and a second generation Stavic is still in production today. Saying it is better looking is a massive understatement, but that was not a high bar for the company to clear.

Everything American on the GS platform

The 'Project Global' platform collaboration between Daimler Chrysler and Mitsubishi was supposed to usher in a glorious future of component sharing and economies of scale for both companies, but instead gave us a bunch of generally hateful cars that everyone disliked.

While Mitsubishi made the most of it, using it under the Lancer, Outlander, ASX and, most recently, the Eclipse Cross (yep, that's right, they're still using it) that, while not world beaters, were all at least decent cars, the Americans only produced utter dreck with it.

Hateful crapboxes like the Chrysler Sebring and 200, Dodge Caliber, Avenger and Journey and the Jeep Compass and Patriot twins were spewed from the Daimler Chrysler factories with little regard for quality, refinement or even visual appeal, with a collection of awful engines and dismal transmissions rounding out the extremely underwhelming packages.